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Nearly a quarter of voters believe the conservative rising star Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg would make a better chancellor than the embattled Angela Merkel, a poll published Wednesday found.

Nearly half of the respondents to the Forsa survey said they believed there was no difference between the politicians' abilities, while just 14 percent picked Merkel as the better leader, Stern magazine reported.

The poll comes amid growing speculation that Defence Minister Guttenberg, a member of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), is likely to become leader of his party and has a strong chance to become the nation's chancellor.

Some 23 percent of respondents to the Forsa poll preferred him to Merkel, the leader of the CSU's sister party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

This week's issue of news magazine Der Spiegel featured Guttenberg and his wife Stephanie on the cover with the headline “The fabulous Guttenbergs” and raised the possibility that Guttenberg would succeed Merkel as chancellor.

Guttenberg, 38, is easily the country's most popular politician at the moment – a title long held by Merkel. In a recent poll, his approval rating of 70 percent positively dwarfed her 40 percent.

Guttenberg himself has described suggestions that he might oust Merkel if the conservatives perform badly in state elections next year as “bizarre.”